Founded in 2014, Yacht Harbour has now gone through nearly 3 years of rapid growth, packed with milestones and interesting events. In this list are 11 things about Yacht Harbour that are not widely known, but we thought were interesting enough to share.
#1 Yacht Harbour started as an Instagram channel
Even though Yacht Harbour's initial plan was to build a web platform for a marketplace of yachts for sale, the company started an Instagram account in August 2014 to get some sort of traction, ahead of the launch of its website in December of that year.
At a time when no yachting media companies were on the platform, the strategy proved successful and saw Yacht Harbour get to 10,000 followers in under 4 months. This, in turn, proved instrumental to getting the first users to Yacht Harbour.
#2 We power instant results for a Top 5 search engine
Another little known fact about Yacht Harbour is that the company's index powers an instant result snippet for search engine, DuckDuckGo. One of the 5 available search settings on an iPhone, DuckDuckGo is a search engine built with privacy in mind.
Any user searching for a particular yacht on the platform, will see on top of search results an image of the yacht with it's main specifications, which DuckDuckGo displays using an API built by Yacht Harbour on top of its database for the search engine.
#3 News coverage was first meant as a content marketing play
Even though our audience is now spread evenly across its superyacht marketplace and its news section, Yacht Harbour's editorial coverage was started only in October 2015 to act as a content marketing vehicle for its search platform.
Despite these plans, news coverage rapidly evolved and grew to serve the purposes of a true media company, which Yacht Harbour has since become. Stories broken by our news department are now often used as sources by international media such as the BBC, CNBC and others.
#4 We built a chat bot to answer any yachting question
Developed in a wave of growing excitement over chat bots, Brook became the first chat bot in yachting that used a combination of machine learning, natural language recognition and big data to answer any question related to yacht.
Although Brook was since retired due to a lack of users, Yacht Harbour did manage to build a working version, answering over 80% of asked questions. Its original interface can still be seen here. When live it was even accessible from the Telegram messaging platform.
#5 Our content can be found on Forbes and Business Insider
As part of its content distribution strategy, Yacht Harbour struck deals with Business Insider to distribute part of its English-language content and to contribute stories to the French and Russian versions of Forbes.
With news stories around yachting and articles trying to open up the field to a more general audience, this content was read over 2 million times so far in 2017.
#6 We ran a crowdfunding campaign in our first year
Far from today's peak of attention around ICOs, Yacht Harbour ran a crowdfunding campaign in 2015 as an experiment, ahead of the launch of its charter marketplace to offer heavily discounted deals and lifetime advantages for participants.
Through the campaign, Yacht Harbour raised just under $3,000 from a series of contributors. The value of some the items offered then by Yacht Harbour has grown over 1,000x today.
#7 We get 10 million impressions of our content every month
Having rapidly grown from the 23 visitors Yacht Harbour on the day of it's launch, the company's combined channels now reach over 10 million impressions every month. This figure includes Yacht Harbour's website traffic, social media reach and audience on third-party platforms.
#8 There are sometimes easter eggs on Yacht Harbour
Sometimes overtaken by the holiday spirit, Yacht Harbour's homepage can sometimes change to adopt a special skin for limited times as seen above. So far, the company has dressed up its website for Halloween, Christmas and New Year's Eve but other events may soon be coming.
#9 One million minutes are spent watching Yacht Harbour's videos monthly
Playing an increasingly important role for any media company, videos have been a key to Yacht Harbour's success as well with over 800 days worth of videos being watched on our platform every month. The latest Black Pearl video alone reached over 3 million impressions on our network.
#10 Our Facebook page outranks its nearest competition 10 to 1
Owing much of its success to social media, Yacht Harbour has always tried to dominate the space in the superyacht sector and Facebook is currently the most reflective of this paradigm. Whereas Yacht Harbour gets 36,500 engagements on its page every week, the nearest competition currently sits at 3,300 engagements per week.
#11 It took us over 20,000 hours to build the Timeline platform
A major step forward in yacht search, Yacht Harbour's Timeline platform was launched in May 2017 after over 20,000 hours of research. The platform, compared to a Bloomberg terminal for yachting, lets its subscribers track the market in real time, discover the story behind any yacht and find the best deals on the market with big data.
Photos by Julien Hubert
UK superyacht yards Princess Yachts and Sunseeker International have donated Personal Protective Equipment to workers fighting coronavirus.Princess Yachts has donated its stock of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to frontline workers fighting coronavirus.By words of Princess Yachts chief executive, Antony Sheriff “We hope this donation of our PPE goes some way to helping NHS staff and other such services in these incredibly difficult times.”Also, Sunseeker has donated around 400 face masks and 4000 gloves to local Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.By words of Sunseeker chief operating officer, Michael Straughan this help was “to support our hardworking NHS workers as they continue their exceptional frontline work against coronavirus.”
March 31, 2020
DLBA Naval Architects created a new artificial intelligence concept, that makes it possible for some systems to be operated without any human interference.A new artificial intelligence concept which DLBA Naval Architects has been working on for some months not only means smarter operation onboard yachts, it means some systems can be operated with the human element removed when need be.DLBA has selected a 58m superyacht concept to develop internally as an autonomous yacht. The result, TEMPO, will be a study in all vessel systems where artificial intelligence can be used to enhance an owner’s experience onboard.There are three main areas where autonomous technology can be used in the maritime world - navigational autonomy, equipment health monitoring, and mechanical and electrical systems automation. All reduce the need for human input while increasing efficiency.Navigation autonomy relieves the workload on the vessel operator, and unmanned vessels have been operating in the commercial and military space for years. Hull, mechanical and electrical automation is like having an onboard engineering team at your fingertips. By ensuring elements at the sub-system level are AI-ready, the vessel can be kept operating at peak performance, efficiently. The number and complexity of auxiliary systems and equipment onboard yachts is increasing year-on-year, and with that comes the increasing demand on crews’ time to interpret feedback from the systems - equipment health monitoring lessens this demand on crew time.
March 31, 2020
The New Otam 70 HT has sporty but elegant and time fearless exterior lines, inspired by hypercars and aeronautic design. The yacht was designed by the Italian BG Design Firm studio with respecting and enhancing the Otam Brand style and Identity and new hull lines by Umberto Tagliavini Marine Design.Otam 70 HT has a deep V hull with a 21° deadrise angle together with the remarkable engine room volume. The yacht has incomparable fuel efficiency and unmatchable performances even with high seas. “Built-In” interiors is characterized by assembled but entirely built wood onboard space, reaching unconventional quality and solidity, a unique approach that ensure time fearless results and limitless aesthetic or layout choice.The yacht will include a sunbed on top of the transom tender garage and a sunbed at the bow. The first hull will also feature a three-cabin layout, including a full 5.4-metre beam owner’s suite forward with a separate crew cabin at the bow. With an overall length of 22 meters and a beam of 5.40 meters, the yacht offers a transom tender garage, the stabilization system and large volume engine room. Power will come from a pair of 2000hp MAN or MTU engines for a top speed of 50 knots.The yacht will make its international debut at the 2021 Cannes Yachting Festival.
March 31, 2020
Rome architects Borzelli & Berta have introduced details of new collection additions to the Thunderbird line of yachts, developed for South Korean shipyard GHI Yachts.New concepts will include a 40-metre, a 45-metre and a 50-metre yacht models with a sporty, sleek contemporary style and military lines by Francesco Rogantin.Key features of the yacht line include the optimised external areas and the inclusion of swimming pools and a touch-and-go helicopter platform.“Our goal was to give to clients the feeling of dealing with a bigger boat, something that almost feels in another league, and this is probably something that reached its peak with the 130’ carrier” - says Andrea Borzelli.
March 30, 2020
Facheris Design (Florida) has revealed a new 65.2 m Explorer yacht concept, which combines the appearance of a luxury yacht with explorer features.The exterior of Explorer was inspired by modern architecture. The key features include glass glazing, that increases the amount of natural light and showcases ocean views from the saloon. The yacht can accommodate 12 guests, while the crew quarters allows for a staff of 20.A hybrid propulsion package of CAT diesel-electric engines will provide a maximum speed of 20 knots. Other technical details can include an 11.2-metre beam and large helipad on the aft deck, which can also be used for storing and deploying tenders and toys.
March 27, 2020